This invention concerns puppets useful for entertainment, instructional and demonstration purposes, and more particularly relates to puppets operable by a single hand and having a grasping capability easily mastered by children.
There are many different kinds of puppets designed to produce entertaining movements based upon the manipulative efforts of the operator. U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,236 describes a puppet which may be deployed from a flattened storage state to a functional state enabling single hand operation and adapted to grasp and lift flat objects. The advantage of the flattened storage state is that the puppet may be included wihtin a book or multi-media kit whose subject content is related to the appearance of the puppet.
However, the puppet of U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,236, even in its flattened state, is of an appreciable thickness caused by six layers of stiff paper or cardboard sheet stock. Also, a certain amount of cost is involved in the fabrication and assembly of three separate components that comprise the puppet.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a puppet adapted for single hand manipulation.
It is another object of this invention to provide a puppet as in the foregoing object having grasping capability and useful for instructional purposes.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a puppet of the aforesaid nature which can be easily deploy from a flat precursor structure representing the storage state of the puppet.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a puppet of the aforesaid nature of simple, durable construction amenable to low cost manufacture.
These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.